In Civ1 (windows & Dos) are there any differences in the civs' characteristics?

[stwils]

I was wondering. Are there any differences at all in the characteristics for any of the civilizations in Civ 1?

I know we noted lately that the Russians usually get two settlers.

But what else? Or are they really just the same? (Assuming of course you are not playing on the world map.)

In Civ3, for example, England was Expansionist and Commercial, starting with Pottery and Alphabet and with a special unit called Man-o War.

Then in Civ3 Conquest England became Seafaring and Commercial.

So are the civs all the same in Civ1, so that no matter what you choose to be, it really makes no difference? Are your enemies all the same regardless of their names?

stwils

 

[Masquerouge]

I believe the only difference is in their aggressivity. Some civs will be more peaceful, others (as is the Mongols) will be insanely aggressive.
But other than that, civs do not have traits.

 

[hydraulics]

Every civilization has 3 characteristics: aggression (friendly, normal, aggressive), development (perfectionist, normal, expansionistic), militarism (civilized, normal, militaristic).

Combining them a civilization behavior can result in a higher or lower aggressiveness: mongols have the highest (aggressive, expansionistic, militaristic) and babylonians the lowest (friendly, perfectionist,civilized).

To tell the truth I haven't seen a big difference among them, at least at prince/king level, with the remarkable exception of the mongols that are often the strongest civ in every game.

 

[stwils]

Thanks for the information. Where did you find it? I have looked through the manual and a few other old books and I could not find anything pertaining to the various civs' individual characteristics.

Is it listed somewhere on this forum?

Thanks again.

stwils

 

[hydraulics]

Where did you find it?

It's a table found in "Civilization, or Rome on 640K a Day", I think you may get it used on ebay (I got mine there this year).

It's the definitive strategy book on Civ1, with formulas, hints, charts and tables spanning over 370 pages. Recommended if you want to know what's under the hood and improve your gameplay, but your addiction will badly increase.

 

[GoldBerg]

It's a table found in "Civilization, or Rome on 640K a Day", I think you may get it ....

HERE at CFC >>>

http://civfanatics.com/civ1/cia/

or ALL tribes 'at once' >>>
http://civfanatics.com/civ1/cia/allcivs.htm

and

http://civfanatics.com/civ1/difficultychart/

 

[hydraulics]

HERE at CFC >>>

Quite right, it seems I overlooked a bit that section...

 

[DBear]

I thought that was for Civ2...

 

[Dack]

From Territorial Cities section of the C.I.A. report (see GoldBerg's post above)
"Once a civilization has built all of it's cities as well as every city on this list, it can build no more cities. Attempts to build a 49th city will produce an error message. Note that 48 is the limit, regardless of whether you actually choose to use the names presented on these lists. "

I read that and said what! (Don’t you just hate it when what you hold to be true is questioned.)
This just isn't true in version 5, and I would be surprised if it is in any DOS version.

After you build your 16 cities you do move on to the 32 extra cities. After that the next name is the first free name in the total list of cities. You and the other civilizations can have a total 127 cities active at any one time. There a 256 cities names available, I don’t know what happens if they all end up being used.


MAP & SVE example in zip

 

[stwils]

So what if I choose a peaceful, non aggressive civ to play? Am I doing myself in?

Suppose I play the Babylonians whose threat level is 0. What happens to me if my enemies are the Greeks (threat level 5) or the Mongols with a threat level of 6!

What is the advantage (if any) of choosing a peaceful civ to play?

Is it better to choose a civ whose threat level is high?

stwils

 

[trada]

It doesn't matter. It only effects the AI's personalities. It makes no difference of you play a civ of threat level 0 to a treat level of 6. The stats such as aggressive, civilized and such don't matter except for the AI's personalities. It doesn't really change that civ. Just the leader's choices.

 

[stwils]

trada, could you elaborate a little on this?

Are you saying that if I play as a civ whose threat level is 0, it really doesn't affect the way I choose to play. I could play aggressively if I want.

But the enemies - if I am confronted with two aggressive, high threat level civs, their style of play will be in line with those characteristics? Does that mean they will build up their military faster and better than an enemy whose threat level is 0? So that makes the game harder for me to be confronted by two high threat level civs? Does that mean I should hurry and build a strong military?

Please say a little more about this. Do you change your style of playing once you meet your enemies and see what threat level they are?

Can an aggressive civ still meet you with only two cabinet members? (That shows the size of their kingdom so far, doesn't it?) Can a threat level 0 civ meet you with 4 cabinet members standing with him?

The more I play this game, the less I seem to know...

stwils

 

[trada]

This page: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ1/cia/allcivs.htm has everything everybody knows about it. Check out the bottom of the page for info on what you are asking

 

[iguana1]

The 3 characteristics affect the AI decisions. The same 3 characteristics where also present in civ 2. Basically, when an AI has to decide what to build and how to treat other AI/the human, its decision will be influenced by the traits for that civ. A militaristic civ is more likely to build military units, barracks, etc. A civilized civ is more likely to build infrastructure. Likewise, an expansionistic civ will prefer units/settlers while the perfectionist will be more likely to build city improvements. As for aggression, a friendly civ is more likely to stay at peace while an aggressive one will be quicker to declare war.

It's been awhile since I played civ 1 but back in the day, my decisions and plans would change a little depending on what civ ended up being my neighbor. You could always count on there being no lasting peace if you started near the Mongols, Zulu or Germans so you better beeline for militaristic techs and start up a massive arms race before they did. Likewise if your main neighbors were the Indians or Babalonians, you knew that you could build more early or still create the war machine and have a couple easier targets to use for quick expansion.

I don't have a complete list of everything it affects but I know that city build options, when to declare war, attitude during negotiation, and such would all be affected by the trait settings for each ruler.

Also note, there is a cool function in civ 1 that would allow you to randomize the AI traits. That way you didn't know which, if any, would be the aggressor or pacifist. I believe it is alt+r that will do the randomization and I think you could actually do it at repeatedly during the game. This made for quite the cheat as changing leader traits mid game (especially doing over and over) tended to mess up their development.

Being able to randomize at the beginning was one thing I missed when civ 2 arrived. The traits are stored in an .INI file there and there was no way to change it. So I wrote a little executable that would read in the INI and change the trait values for all leaders at random prior to starting a game.

 

[iguana1]

Replying to another thread reminded me of something else the traits will do. They will influence the likelihood of what bonus techs you can receive at the beginning of a game. Militaristic civs are more likely to start with bronze working, etc. Civilized civs are more likely to get Alphabet, pottery, etc.

 

[Raion]

I am not sure what game you are talking about. ms-dos Civ is the first Civilization game, that worked in ms-dos. Civ I is the first Windows version of the game that worked with Windows 3.1 I use to have both, and the Windows version is Civwin, because I just installed it off the floppies (that were still good -- which suprised me) and that is the first Windows Version. The Settler is different, and the Covered Wagon is ms-dos Civilization. I always hated the barbarians hanging right next to the city.
??

I have to look again, perhaps the Settler is the Covered Wagon, but now I am in Win2K Prof.